I started playing about 2 months ago, tried some stuff and found that I enjoyed doing exploration so that is my income for now and it’s enough to keep me going. I created a separate character for PVP who is now also training (doing drone skills first). My account is omega.
Thing is that both characters are Amarr because I like the look of their ships and I’d like to RP it a bit. I’d like to stick to Amarr only for PVP if at all possible. I know pretty much nothing on PVP other than what youtube videos show me and most of that doesn’t really make too much sense just yet. So here are a few questions:
By choosing Amarr am I making it (too) difficult for myself if I want to start with PVP?
is sticking to Amarr only ships going to bite me in the ass down the line or can it be done if you just really want it to work?
what are some early on, easy to use Amarr PVP ships for solo stuff
what kind of roles and ships should I aim for (again, easy to use) for group PVP?
First of all: You made the right choice. There is nothing that says as much 'i love you ’ to your fellow capsuleers than a set of light beams in the universe and on their ship hull.
Yes you do make it difficult but not too - that is a very subjective part right there (see 5.)
It can be done and it all depends on how much you are willing to take some pain once in a while
Always start with the frigs - especially the Punisher (as the name already says) is a great brawler
If you really want to play around in pvp and you want to keep your options open the frigs in general are the thing to work with first. Not only come they in different specializations by now (there are ones for almost each special type of combat like ewar, support, brawling, tackling) bt they are also cheap to replace. The beginning of pvp always means you are going to loose ships and you dont want to be broke all the time. It will also teach you a lot about picking your fights - which is one of the more important abilities when it comes to solo and small gang pvp.
As promised - this wasnt asked but i figured it will be a concern for you: the most important part in EVE is to have fun. If roleplaying is part of the fun for you then that is what you actually WANT to do. The overcoming of certain hurdles will not make it as simple for you as for those who just change ship types and races like underwear. But it also has its advantages in terms of skilling deeper into one race in the same time frame where others have to spread out into different races. One of the more famous persons in EVE when it comes to fitting ships used to fly around in a Megathron for years whatever other ship type was asked for in a fleet. And he made it work. He became much more skilled in getting a ship to do what he wanted than most others in EVE by doing that. So there is always an upside to each downside! ref video here
No, Amarr have some fantastic PvP options of all levels.
No, you can make Amarr-only playstyles work as long as you take the time to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the Amarr ships.
Some solid ships for solo PvP include ships like:
Tormentor
Imperial Navy Slicer
Retribution
Omen Navy Issue
For group PvP, Amarr ships are very flexible. One of the biggest contributions that Amarr have is consistent EM/Thermal damage. Many Amarr ships have bonuses to range (especially the Imperial Navy Slicer or Omen Navy Issue) allowing you to sit back and fire your lasers at your target.
If you want to look for more of a support role, Electronic Warfare ships like the Crucifier, and Sentinel are incredibly powerful.
The Crucifier’s strength is in hindering your victim’s weapons. Imagine cutting down the range of a target down by 30% so they can’t hit your friends, or ruining their tracking and application so their shots end up glancing off your friend’s hulls.
The Sentinel (Tech II Crucifier) has an INCREDIBLE Energy Nuetralizer bonus would allows you to drain the target’s capacitor. Ships that require Capacitor (for example, Active Repair tanking ships) will suddenly find themselves out of energy and unable to run their modules.
Logistics (healing) is a bit harder for Amarr, mostly because the main repairing ships (Augoror and Guardian) are extremely slow and reliant on Cap chaining (passing Capacitor back and forth between each other to keep each other topped off). Both are also locked to only Armor repairers. So if you want to go into the healer role, you’ll need to have someone who can partner up with you to keep up a cap chain.
